David Lynch Foundation Bloghttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog
Healing Traumatic Stress and Raising Performance in At-risk PopulationsWed, 25 Feb 2015 18:44:54 +0000en-UShourly1Inmates Can Find Freedom Behind Barshttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/inmates-can-find-freedom-behind-bars/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=inmates-can-find-freedom-behind-bars
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/inmates-can-find-freedom-behind-bars/#commentsMon, 23 Feb 2015 17:58:26 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=2188Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI) is home to nearly 900 inmates, many of whom will soon transition back to society. The prison provides a range of self-improvement and employment programs to help inmates make a successful reintegration. Among these is the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, which OSCI has offered to inmates and staff since 2009. “Most people’s […]

]]>
Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI) is home to nearly 900 inmates, many of whom will soon transition back to society. The prison provides a range of self-improvement and employment programs to help inmates make a successful reintegration. Among these is the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, which OSCI has offered to inmates and staff since 2009.

“Most people’s understanding about prison and prison life is so framed by what we see put out by the entertainment industry, but the fact of the matter is, they are terrible pressure cookers. Staff have to walk into that everyday and inmates have to live with it everyday,” explains former Inmate Services Administrator, Randy Geer.

Released about four years ago, Ladarrius Tidmore served five years for robbery and learned TM as part of a David Lynch Foundation-sponsored TM program at the Correctional Institution. ”When I meditate, it’s like a free feeling. It takes me away from the prison completely. I zone everybody out, everything out, and I’m not even here for those twenty, thirty minutes that I meditate. I’m relaxed and free. Nothing can touch me. It’s a great feeling,” says Ladarrius.

Sisi Faupau, another participant of OSCI’s TM program who received early release due to good behavior, found that meditating helped him connect with the good in himself. ”Spending time with myself, that’s really what it is, you know—getting in touch with your inner self. And everybody inside is a good person—we just make bad choices. Spending time with myself makes me feel good.” A regular meditator after release, Sisi says he has put prison life behind him.

Since the program was introduced in 2009, 225 inmates have learned Transcendental Meditation. OSCI staff say the program has produced significant changes in inmates’ mood and behavior.

“People seem to feel better. They’re healthier; they seem more calm. Some of the folks who have learned TM, if you look at their personalities prior to this, they were a little sparky, and I’ve noticed a sort of leveling off. They’re not so reactive to situations,” explains Gary Kilmer, retired superintendent of OSCI.

Dr. Michael Puerini, OSCI’s Medical Director, says, “I think that TM can really help people broaden their focus. There’s something about TM that brings out compassion. I don’t know how it works, but it does. And a compassionate person is a healthier person.”

According to Tom O’Connor, who previously served as Director of Research at OSCI, creating an atmosphere where inmates can find peace and heal is the key to generating a positive influence on society. “I am passionate about creating public safety and making sure there are no more victims in the community. The way to do that is to reach the strengths and goodness inside of everybody in the prison system. If we just create an environment of healing, one that allows the goodness to ripple up, I think the sky’s the limit. We could create a better society; a much more humane system, and a much more effective prison,” he says.

The David Lynch Foundation is currently funding three prison programs in Oregon, one program in Rikers Island in New York City, and another for incarcerated youth in California. With additional funding, the DLF is prepared to expand its programs to prisons and correctional facilities for youth nationwide.

Learn More:

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/inmates-can-find-freedom-behind-bars/feed/0Transcendental Meditation Helps Students Cope with Adult-sized Stresshttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/neuropsychologist-dr-stixrud-brain-development-meditation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=neuropsychologist-dr-stixrud-brain-development-meditation
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/neuropsychologist-dr-stixrud-brain-development-meditation/#commentsTue, 17 Feb 2015 22:40:40 +0000William R. Stixrud, Ph.D.http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=2226As a clinical neuropsychologist, I evaluate a lot of teens and young adults like Todd, who was a freshman on academic probation at a major university when I tested him. Although testing found that Todd had a mild attention disorder, the main causes of his academic underachievement appeared to be (a) avoidance of stressful academic […]

As a clinical neuropsychologist, I evaluate a lot of teens and young adults like Todd, who was a freshman on academic probation at a major university when I tested him. Although testing found that Todd had a mild attention disorder, the main causes of his academic underachievement appeared to be (a) avoidance of stressful academic work and (b) reliance on pot to manage the anxiety and depressive symptoms that resulted from uncompleted assignments, missed classes, and failed expectations.

Although Todd was a college student, he still had an adolescent brain, which continues to mature well into the mid-20’s to early 30’s. Recent research has been emphasizing the creativity and adaptive power of the rapidly developing adolescent brain. Indeed, if we look at the creativity of young artists and musicians and the startling accomplishments of mathematicians and scientists in their early twenties, we can see that the young brain is not just a “work in progress.” At the same time, because it is still developing, the adolescent brain is more vulnerable than the adult brain to the effects of chemicals, including drugs, alcohol, and stress hormones. Adolescents are more easily stressed than adults, and the effects of chronic stress are etched more deeply in the developing brain, often with long lasting consequences.

It is thus troubling that contemporary teens appear to be experiencing unprecedented levels of stress and stress-related mental health problems. Jean Twenge’s comparative research has found that today’s teens and young adults are 5 to 8 times more likely to report symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders than young people did at the height of the Great Depression, during World War II, or during the Cold War. Moreover, a recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found that teens are reporting adult levels of stress, apparently related to a number of sources, including chronic sleep deprivation and heightened academic pressure. Technology use also plays a key role in creating stress for contemporary adolescents, who are “wired 24/7,” because “screen time” is an important risk factor for both physical and mental health problems. Scientists are calling for more “unplugged down time” in which kids can “de-stress” and connect with themselves. Teachers are also calling for antidotes to the mind scattering, mind racing, and mind numbing effects of non-stop use of technology.

Fortunately, 40 years of research on TM has found that regular meditation has the same benefits for teens and college students that it does for adults. Meditating young people sleep better, for example, and they focus better, are less anxious, feel happier, and tolerate stressful situations better. Todd learned TM shortly following his evaluation in my office (after waiting the required 15 days to get marijuana out of his system). Almost immediately, his sleep improved, and within three months his anxiety diminished, his mood improved dramatically, and he was choosing to use meditation (rather than pot) as his main stress management tool. When Todd returned to school several months later, he felt that he had a secret weapon that allowed him to handle the academic and social pressures of college better than most of his classmates. He also found it much easier to make healthy lifestyle choices, and he is currently very successful in his education and career development.

Todd is not an isolated case. Teens and young adults are increasingly turning to meditation as a tool for stress management and/or personal growth, and when young people meditate, it works. Given the current state of mental health in adolescents and college students, all the arrows are pointing toward the importance of meditation as a way for teens and young adults to increase their focus and mental clarity, to minimize anxiety, and to tune-in to their peaceful and powerful core.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Stixrud is a leading clinical neuropsychologist and Director of The Stixrud Group, a DC-based organization specializing in neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents and adults with learning, attention, social and/or emotional disorders. Dr. Stixrud is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of neuropsychological assessment, learning and executive disorders, brain development, motivation and TM’s effect on stress, sleep deprivation and technology overload on the brain.

Dr. Stixrud will be speaking this Thursday, February 19 at the Rubin Museum of Art on the topic of Transcendental Meditations’s effect on the brain.

Learn More:

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/neuropsychologist-dr-stixrud-brain-development-meditation/feed/4Ringo Starr Talks TM, Fashion, and the Peace Rocks Campaignhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/ringo/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ringo
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/ringo/#commentsMon, 02 Feb 2015 22:35:35 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1891 ”When I first met Maharishi, it was one of those mind-altering moments of your life because the man was so full of joy and happiness. It just blew me away. On my best day, I never felt like he looked. I wanted some of that,” said Ringo Starr during an interview on Success without Stress hosted […]

”When I first met Maharishi, it was one of those mind-altering moments of your life because the man was so full of joy and happiness. It just blew me away. On my best day, I never felt like he looked. I wanted some of that,” said Ringo Starr during an interview on Success without Stresshosted by Bob Roth on Sirius XM Radio.

Music icon Ringo Starr

Ringo and his fellow Beatle bandmates helped to popularize Transcendental Meditation (TM) in the 60’s, learning the technique from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during a course in Rishikesh, India. In the interview, Ringo explains how TM has helped him achieve balance and clarity during turbulent times in his life.

An avid meditator 48 years later, Ringo is a vocal and financial supporter of the David Lynch Foundation‘s mission to bring TM to at-risk youth throughout the world. “My sense of David Lynch and his work is brilliant. The big one for me, of course, is bringing meditation to schools and how they know from the research that the violence goes down. How far-out is that? And the Foundation goes into tough schools. That is incredible. You have to support David for that.”

In honor of his music and his lifetime dedication to peace, Ringo was awarded the David Lynch Foundation’s 2014 Lifetime of Peace and Love Award during a tribute concert celebrating his music at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Ringo announced the launch of a “Ringo Starr Peace and Love Fund” to raise support for at-risk students around the world to learn to meditate.

Ringo Starr tee by John Varvatos. Proceeds are donated to the David Lynch Foundation to teach TM.

Following the concert, Ringo partnered with fashion designer John Varvatos to start the #PeaceRocks campaign to raise an additional more than $50,000 for the Peace and Love Fund. Mr. Varvatos donated $1 to the Fund every time someone posted a picture flashing the peace sign. Mr. Varvatos also released a Ringo Starr PeaceRocks t-shirt and donated all proceeds to the Fund.

“With meditation you learn to relax—it’s a whole new way of being. It’s all very simple, it’s not way-out there. You just go with it,” Ringo says.

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/ringo/feed/0Young TM’ers Earn a Standing Ovationhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/girls-van/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=girls-van
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/girls-van/#commentsWed, 28 Jan 2015 01:03:13 +0000Donielle Freeberg & Naomi Roochnikhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1760It’s Thursday at 6:00 a.m., and we are huddled outside of a 15-seater van in the parking lot of New Village Girls Academy, a Los Angeles-based charter school. The “we” includes five young students who all practice Transcendental Meditation: Aylin, Luz, Evelin, Shawntelle, and Kim. We are all eager to hit the road. We are heading to Southern Oregon […]

]]>It’s Thursday at 6:00 a.m., and we are huddled outside of a 15-seater van in the parking lot of New Village Girls Academy, a Los Angeles-based charter school. The “we” includes five young students who all practice Transcendental Meditation: Aylin, Luz, Evelin, Shawntelle, and Kim. We are all eager to hit the road.

We are heading to Southern Oregon University (SOU) where these five young women have been invited to present their successful participation in New Village’s Quiet Time Program to a large group of professional educators at a Holistic Teaching and Learning Conference.

The New Village Quiet Time Program was funded by a David Lynch Foundation grant in Fall 2010. The daily Quiet Time schedule includes two 15-minute sessions, when those who practice TM can meditate, while others sit quietly to recharge.

Scientifically documented benefits of Quiet Time with TM around the US have shown decreased stress levels, depression, insomnia, anxiety, drop-out rates, suspensions, as well as improvements in focus, energy, GPA and graduation rates. After just a few months of incorporating the twice-daily Quiet Time sessions into the school curriculum, the staff at New Village witnessed a marked transformation in the school climate to a safe, peaceful and supportive atmosphere for academic and emotional growth.

The five girls had spent two weeks preparing short speeches about TM’s impact on their lives. Each wrote a unique story in their distinct voice.

Aylin shared how she understood TM’s role in relaxing her when she briefly transferred to a school without Quiet Time and became overwhelmed without the extra rest (she returned to NVGA soon after with a new appreciation for meditation). ”My mind is at ease and I get a fresh start every Quiet Time. I went from getting Ds and Fs to a straight A student. I never understood the value of TM until I didn’t have it anymore. Now I meditate twice a day and never look back,” wrote Aylin.

Luz shared how TM improved her relationship with her sister; Evelin, about how TM helped her manage time between raising her son and completing her schoolwork; Shawntelle, about how her social skills greatly increased; and Kim, about how TM significantly reduced her insomnia.

“I have had bad insomnia for three years and this affected my education and social behavior, which caused a great strain on myself. But when it came time for TM at my school, I soon found myself in a state of blissful silence. It was like I had fallen asleep, but was more aware,” Kim wrote.

They went from shaking in their shoes while presenting in front of each other, to hyping each other up for the big day. After countless edits, public speaking workshops, and rehearsals, we are on our way.

We arrive at SOU at 7 in the evening, and are presented keys to a dormitory lodging on campus. On Friday, we take a tour: the girls are thrilled and inspired—it’s their first taste of college life, and they soak up every bit of it. That evening, they practice their speeches. Naturally, each one is anxious about their public speaking debut. Despite all the hours of work, presenting before a large audience can give anyone a fright!

It’s Saturday morning, and after yoga and TM practice, the girls rehearse one last time, put on their most professional attire, and proudly march on stage. Each girl shines. In fact, they steal the show! Every audience member pays rapt attention— you can hear a pin drop. Some audience members are in tears because they are so deeply moved. When the girls finish, they are met with a standing ovation, and then literally mobbed by educators lining up to congratulate them on their impressive speeches. The students glow.

Sunday morning, we climb back into our 15-seater van and bid farewell to Ashland. We will never forget all the fun and all that was learned on the trip. Aylin, Luz, Evelin, Shawntelle, and Kim discover that with practice and hard work, they have the power and ability to move people. Through the successful delivery of their experiences, they gain confidence in themselves. They experience college life, try new things, and return to Los Angeles all the wiser for having explored unchartered territory. These five Transcendental Meditation students realize they were a part of a remarkable Academy at New Village, one which interests and intrigues listeners. Most of all, they learned that people do care about what they have to say.

Learn More:

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/girls-van/feed/5David Lynch on Meditation, Success and Happinesshttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/davids-interview/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=davids-interview
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/davids-interview/#commentsTue, 20 Jan 2015 22:22:46 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=2062Filmmaker David Lynch first learned Transcendental Meditation in 1973. Today, he celebrates his 69th birthday and more than 42 years of TM practice. In honor of the occasion, we bring you his recent interview on Sirius XM’s Success Without Stress with Bob Roth, in which he discusses why TM has played such a vital role in his […]

Filmmaker David Lynch first learned Transcendental Meditation in 1973. Today, he celebrates his 69th birthday and more than 42 years of TM practice. In honor of the occasion, we bring you his recent interview on Sirius XM’s Success Without Stress with Bob Roth,in which he discusses why TM has played such a vital role in his personal and professional life.

David talks with meditating students in Brazil.

For David, happiness is tantamount to success. ”Success is happiness, success is bliss. Everybody has a different idea of what success means, but ultimately when they find success, it brings them happiness. We find happiness outside in the world, but we know that starts fading and tomorrow we start looking for happiness elsewhere. Happiness you get from within stays within you, and that is a very huge success to have happiness stay with you.”

In search of inner happiness, David investigated the field of meditation and its many approaches. He chose TM. ”What I liked about Transcendental Meditation was you don’t have to join anything. It’s your technique. Once you learn, it’s yours for the rest of your life. And what happens is you become more you. You get more ideas, more energy to fulfill them. It’s fuel for the artist and human being. The more consciousness you have, so it fuels the work,” David says.

David Lynch, San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito and comedian Russell Brand meditate at a school in California.

Beyond expanding consciousness and creativity, meditating for David was a matter of survival. ”If I hadn’t been meditating, I don’t know if I’d be alive today,” he says. “Stress makes a person feel bad, weak, and troubled. Enough stress can make you sick, even more can kill you. They say getting rid of stress would be so good for us. And it’s true; you really start feeling better with this experience of transcending everyday. It’s so beautiful. And the stress does lift away.”

“The thing about Transcendental Meditation, I always say, it’s like being given a key that opens the door to that treasury (of happiness) within,” he says. “Life will get better and better. You’ll enjoy work so much more. Ideas will flow. Intuition will grow. Relationships will improve. Change begins within. Access that deepest level of life, and start to boogie.”

“There’s a kind of peacefulness that I don’t think I’ve ever achieved before,” says Martin Scorsese, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, at a private fundraising dinner held recently for the David Lynch Foundation in New York City.

The evening featured rare personal accounts from Mr. Scorsese along with global hedge fund leader Ray Dalio on how the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique opens up new levels of their creativity and promotes health and success in their lives.

Mr. Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates, learned TM in 1968. “It changed my life. I was a very ordinary or sub-ordinary student. It brought a clarity. It made me independent, free flowing. It just gave me a lot of gifts,” says Mr. Dalio, who was named one of Time magazine’s “Most Influential People of 2012.” Bridgewater Associates manages over $157 billion in assets for a broad range of public and private institutions.

Mr. Scorsese, a meditator since 2008, says TM played a pivotal role in the turmoil of filming Hugo, which, he recalls, ran over budget and over time. “I would get up 45 minutes early to meditate before I was able to face that set!” he says. At that point, TM was his only option: “There’s only one thing you can do. Meditate, calm it down, and then, afterwards, deal with the realities.”

According to Mr. Dalio, the benefits from Transcendental Meditation accrue over time. “The thing to convey is how it compounds. It keeps getting better for however long you’re meditating. Next year will be better and the year after that will be better.”

Mr. Scorsese adds: “If I don’t do it, I tend to waste the time and the energy. And when things on the set get very frantic, that 20 minutes is a godsend.”

Both Mr. Scorsese and Mr. Dalio lauded the work of the David Lynch Foundation to bring Transcendental Meditation to at-risk populations who can benefit most from its stress-reducing effects. In fact, proceeds from the evening are being used now to teach hundreds of school children, veterans, and women who are victims of violence in New York City to meditate.

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/martin-scorcese-ray-dalio-talk-tm-creativity-life/feed/1Overcoming Trauma and Despair – Veterans Speak Outhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/sizzle-reel/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sizzle-reel
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/sizzle-reel/#commentsMon, 12 Jan 2015 22:25:25 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1730This short video chronicles the stories of a few of the many thousands of veterans whose lives have been transformed through Transcendental Meditation (TM). “I woke up 30 days later after being in a coma. I went from being an able-bodied person to someone who had to rely on someone in the blink of an eye,” […]

This short video chronicles the stories of a few of the many thousands of veterans whose lives have been transformed through Transcendental Meditation (TM).

“I woke up 30 days later after being in a coma. I went from being an able-bodied person to someone who had to rely on someone in the blink of an eye,” recalls Specialist Jace Badia, who served in Iraq. “Anger issues, stress issues—I just didn’t care, you know? And I was taking it out on everybody.”

At least 20 percent of the 2.3 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffer from post-traumatic stress (PTS), a disabling mental injury that significantly raises risk of alcoholism and drug abuse, family and employment problems, violence—and even suicide.

On the other hand, published research shows that the TM technique effectively reduces symptoms of post-traumatic stress by close to 50 percent and can even help to prevent its onset.

Leshonda “Shy” Gill, Platoon Sergeant (Ret.), U.S. Army

In the video, Platoon Sergeant (Ret.) Leshonda “Shy” Gill, who also served in Iraq, shares how TM literally saved her life: “I know the trauma that got me onto that window ledge but I also know what got me out of that window ledge and why I’m here now—Transcendental Meditation. To know that as small of a concept as 20 minutes, twice a day, can make me feel like I feel now—that’s a gift that you can’t buy.”

Vietnam Marine veteran Dan Burks says, “I could not believe what happened. It was the difference between heaven and hell. It was absolutely transformational.”

Veterans receive TM instruction through grants provided by Operation Warrior Wellness (OWW), the Veterans and Armed Services Division of the David Lynch Foundation.

Melvin Brown, Sergeant (Ret.), U.S. Army

“With Transcendental Meditation, veterans who have sacrificed to serve their country can regain their health, hope, and love of life while neutralizing the traumas of the past,” says Ed Schloeman, co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness and retired Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) from the New York Air National Guard and a Vietnam Marine Veteran (Sgt).

Melvin Brown, Sergeant (Ret.), agrees: ”I’m more content than I’ve ever been, more in love with my life, with my wife, with my kids, with my job, with my circumstances.”

The four-year plan of Operation Warrior Wellness is to teach 10,000 veterans, first responders and their families Transcendental Meditation. If you would like to donate to this most noble mission, please click here.

Learn More:

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/sizzle-reel/feed/0“San Francisco Schools Transformed by the Power of Meditation:” NBC Newshttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/san-francisco-schools-transformed-power-meditation-nbc-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=san-francisco-schools-transformed-power-meditation-nbc-news
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/san-francisco-schools-transformed-power-meditation-nbc-news/#commentsTue, 06 Jan 2015 21:35:01 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1920NBC Nightly News reports on the transformation of two San Francisco schools through the incorporation of Quiet Time in this December 30, 2014 story. Read the full article below. ___________________________________________________________________ (December 30, 2014) NBC News — Silence isn’t something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School […]

NBC Nightly News reports on the transformation of two San Francisco schools through the incorporation of Quiet Time in this December 30, 2014 story. Read the full article below. ___________________________________________________________________

Students at Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco participate in their twice-daily Quiet Time sessions.

(December 30, 2014) NBC News — Silence isn’t something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes.

And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students’ demeanor.

“The kids see guns on a daily basis,” the school’s athletic director, Barry O’Driscoll said, adding, “there would be fights here three-to-five times a week.”

With a typical school’s days filled with mayhem, O’Driscoll was skeptical when the San Francisco Public School District partnered with the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education to introduce a meditation program, called “Quiet Time,” to four of its schools, including Visitacion Valley.

“I thought this is hippy stuff that didn’t work in the ’70s, so how’s it gonna work now,” O’Driscoll said. But he changed his tune, when over a four-year period, suspensions decreased by 79 percent and attendance and academic performance noticeably increased.

Blocks away at Burton High School, which was once dubbed “Fight School,” the results have been similar. Principal Bill Kappenhagen was skeptical at first, as well, and had to wrangle with the problem of when in the school day to grab a half hour for quiet reflection.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to steal time from English instruction or math instruction in order to do that,” said Kappenhagen.

Instead, he decided to extend the school day by 30 minutes for meditation time, which resulted in better academic performance and a 75 percent decrease in suspensions. And students say they’re more conscious of their actions, calmer and less angry.

While Kappenhagen recognizes that “there is no magic wand in education, just like in life,” meditation has been found to increase focus and stimulate a sense of calm, not just during the quiet time, but also for the rest of the day, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Kappenhagen says he knows he can’t change the environment the students live in when they’re not at school, but he’s glad he’s discovered a way to “help our students find ways to deal with violence and the trauma and the stress of everyday life.”

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/san-francisco-schools-transformed-power-meditation-nbc-news/feed/4“Transcendental Meditation: A Path to Healing:” US Army Homepagehttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/transcendental-meditation-path-healing-us-military/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=transcendental-meditation-path-healing-us-military
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/transcendental-meditation-path-healing-us-military/#commentsTue, 16 Dec 2014 23:18:55 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1840“I got to a tipping point. Things were bad, but then I was given the greatest gift I have ever received from a stranger,” says Staff Sgt. Todd Knauber in an article published recently on www.army.mil (the official homepage of the US Army). The article describes Knauber’s road to recovery from post-traumatic stress through the […]

]]>“I got to a tipping point. Things were bad, but then I was given the greatest gift I have ever received from a stranger,” says Staff Sgt. Todd Knauber in an article published recently on www.army.mil (the official homepage of the US Army). The article describes Knauber’s road to recovery from post-traumatic stress through the evidence-based Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique. It comes at a time of widespread acceptance of integrative approaches to healing the invisible wounds of war.

________________________________________________________________

(December 11, 2014) FORT GORDON, Ga. — Staff Sgt. Todd Knauber used to believe it would sound ridiculous to recommend something like transcendental meditation classes to fellow combat veterans but the results have changed his views.

Knauber states that, “it is our greatest weapon in helping to combat the scars of conflict. This program provides [veterans] the grounds to reestablish hope; and begin to truly heal.”

Knauber served nine months as a U.S. Army turret gunner in the far west region of
Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom before he was injured.

“Together we have seen both the best and worst humanity has had to offer and we have learned to endure the scars we have been left with.”

He was told that the longer you are out of the fight, the better things are supposed to get but he found his reality was much different.

“Every day that hill gets a little steeper. The life back there versus the life here seem worlds apart; one feels like the sole place I belong, or where anything makes some modicum of sense. Some days it’s hard to stay out of that dark place.”

Without a dependable support system at home, he was having trouble doing his job and maintaining any kind of relationship with his friends and loved ones.

“I got to a tipping point. Things were bad, but then I was given the greatest gift I have ever received from a stranger.”

Knauber was offered an opportunity to participate in transcendental meditation as part of his treatment at Eisenhower Army Medical Center.

Transcendental meditation was something he had never heard of but it offered him the possibility of dealing with the medications, the nightmares, and the physical and emotional pain.

“It was not a branch for me to grab hold of but rather a taproot under my feet. A stable platform which gives me a moments respite so I can put my pain into perspective enough that I can reattempt the climb.”

Since he began meditating, there has been a change in his life. He meditates twice a day for 20 minutes and over the course of four months, he has been able to entirely discontinue two medications, Prazosin and Trazadone, and has reduced his Zoloft by half.

In addition to the calm he says he experiences through transcendental meditation, Knauber says it has made it easier to manage his physical pain from his injuries.

“I typically have a regimen of several pain medications to manage my physical injuries. Rather than taking a handful of pills seven days a week, I can manage my pain regularly with a few tablets, two to three times a week.”

Others have even told him that he looks like an entirely different person after starting to meditate.

“I am vibrant, I smile, and I look much more grounded. The truth is you can’t practice transcendental meditation without it positively affecting you.”

Doctors promised him through medication and hard work he could potentially heal over the course of years, but since transcendental meditation he has moved much closer to achieving his recovery in months.

“At times the troubling thoughts and nightmares come back, but as a whole, the progress is palatable.”

“I feel more in control of my life now, and I’m becoming hopeful about rebuilding and getting better.”

________________________________________________________________

This article was originally posted on www.army.mil (the official homepage of the US Army). To view the original piece, please click here. To learn more about the David Lynch Foundation‘s work with military personnel, please click here.

]]>http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/transcendental-meditation-path-healing-us-military/feed/0Huffington Post: David Lynch’s Mission to Change the Worldhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/david-lynchs-mission-change-world-huffington-post/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=david-lynchs-mission-change-world-huffington-post
http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/david-lynchs-mission-change-world-huffington-post/#commentsTue, 09 Dec 2014 23:21:04 +0000Bibi Tranhttp://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/blog/?p=1792“Mankind was not meant to suffer — bliss is our nature. The individual is cosmic. Let’s rock,” said film director David Lynch, during an interview with Marianne Schnall, published in Huffington Post today. This rare, feature-length interview delves deeply into David’s personal experience with Transcendental Meditation and his mission to alleviate stress and trauma through bringing the technique to those […]

“Mankind was not meant to suffer — bliss is our nature. The individual is cosmic. Let’s rock,” said film director David Lynch, during an interview with Marianne Schnall, published in Huffington Post today. This rare, feature-length interview delves deeply into David’s personal experience with Transcendental Meditation and his mission to alleviate stress and trauma through bringing the technique to those who need it most.

David reveals that his first inspiration to start the Foundation came from wanting to stop violence in schools. He says “I started hearing about students bringing guns to school and then more and more through the years, about more and more violence in schools, metal detectors, no learning, fights in the school, a lot of depression, a lot of pharmaceutical drugs, a lot of illegal drugs — the whole thing that by now everybody’s heard about. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if students knew about Transcendental Meditation? And one thing led to another and this foundation got born in 2005.”

David feels Transcendental Meditation can help reduce the negativity that so many young people and adults struggle to cope with: “I always say this negativity that we live under is like the suffocating rubber clown suit of negativity. This clown suit starts to dissolve when you transcend every day. And this gives a person a huge freedom.

“Surface cures are not going to get rid of the torment that’s inside the students or the vets or the prisoners or anyone suffering from this torment. Drugs cover it over, but they don’t get rid of it. When a human being is transcending every day that torment dissolves. It lifts away,” David says.

Through the work of David’s Foundation, more than 500,000 adults and children around the world have been positively impacted through the twice-daily practice of Transcendental Meditation.

“I’ve seen so many cases where lives have been transformed for the good and heard so many stories about this,” David says. “This technique of Transcendental Meditation really works for the human being.”